


Pantheress and Cub

by SonjaJade



Category: Fullmetal Alchemist: Brotherhood & Manga
Genre: Gen, Graduation, Surprises, Visiting Family
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-05-29
Updated: 2020-05-29
Packaged: 2021-03-02 19:41:39
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,972
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/24442276
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/SonjaJade/pseuds/SonjaJade
Summary: Pinako makes the journey to Rush Valley to watch Winry receive her mastership. While she knows she's sort of a legend in Rush Valley's history, she has no doubt Winry's going to follow in her footsteps (most of them, anyway).
Relationships: Edward Elric/Winry Rockbell, Pinako Rockbell & Winry Rockbell
Comments: 6
Kudos: 58
Collections: Moms Made Fullmetal Week 2020





	Pantheress and Cub

**Author's Note:**

> DAY 6: Graduation, Pride

The train station in Rush Valley is as noisy and crowded as Pinako remembers. The smell of machine oil and lubricants brings back a flood of memories from days long past and she wonders if that smell would ever fade, should some other industry come to the automail capital of the country.

Springtime here is different from Resembool. There’s hardly any vegetation, so there’s no budding branches or blooming flowers to look at. Instead, there's a conference on the newest advances in automail that concludes with a graduation ceremony of sorts for all the newly licensed master mechanics- one of which is her granddaughter. In years past, Pinako was perfectly happy to read the summary of the conference in the monthly digest she subscribes to in the mail, but there’s no way she would miss Winry’s mastership ceremony.

Winry called two weeks ago from her mentor’s shop saying she’d received her exam results and that she passed with zero errors. They both cried with joy, and Pinako was so fit to burst with pride that she went to the local tavern and bought everyone a round in celebration after that call ended.

She suspects Edward will be coming in to offer his congratulations, as well. He’d gone west of Creta, all the way to the ocean, and was making his way back to come through Aerugo. Surely a week or two away from his travels would be a nice break, whether or not he came to Rush Valley at all. But knowing he’d proposed to her, and knowing how hard he was on his automail leg anyway, it won’t surprise her in the least to see him.

She gathers her suitcase and wanders out to the street. So much about the place itself has changed. Shops she’d known when she apprenticed here were gone, and the bar she frequented was replaced by a hardware store, but the crowds still fill the main thoroughfare. People in wheelchairs, on crutches, and wearing slings are as plentiful as those who aren’t physically disabled, and they jam the avenues. She closes her eyes and takes a deep breath, listening to the din around her.

“Just like coming home,” she says to herself.

Though her sense of direction is more than slightly skewed in this new version of Rush Valley, it doesn’t take her long to figure out where Garfiel’s shop is. All she has to do is ask at the hardware store and then she’s on her way. As Pinako shuffles through the masses, she hears a familiar voice calling out to her.

“Wait up, you old hag!”

She turns to see Edward running toward her. She puts her suitcase down so she can pull out her pipe and pack it while she waits for him to get to her. When he reaches her, he picks her up in a hug and spins her around.

“Put me down!” Pinako wails, knocking her pipe against his head. “The hell’s wrong with you!?” He does as she asks while she scowls at him. 

“She did it! Aren’t you excited?” he asks, hands on his hips and smiling wide.

“Of course I am!” she retorts. “But I don’t think that warrants spinning me around like a toddler!”

“Quit your bitchin’,” Ed sasses back, picking up both suitcases. “C’mon, let’s go see Winry!”

It feels weird to follow him around a place she used to know so well. But he knows all the shortcuts and alleyways, and they catch up with each other while they journey to Garfiel’s atelier. When they finally emerge back onto the street, the shop is in sight.

“Well, goodness! It’s very purple,” she comments. 

“Wait’ll you meet Garfiel,” Ed says with a chuckle. “He’s pretty purple, too.”

That sounds disturbing, but Pinako just shakes her head and continues following Ed. When they enter the shop, a voice calls out to Winry.

“Winry, dear! You better come take a look at this!”

Pinako’s jaw drops. Boy, Ed wasn’t kidding when he said Garfiel was a little purple himself. The tall effeminate man has false lashes glued on with glittery lavender eyeshadow, spit curls that would have made her little sister jealous sixty years ago, and a mauve colored tank top with smears of black grease across his pudgy belly. He approaches her with reverence and she’s not quite sure how to respond to him.

“It is an _honor_ to have the Pantheress of Resembool in my shop!” Garfiel gushes. “Even if you did have to bring Edward with you!”

Ed scowls. “Why does everybody hate me today!?” Before anyone can answer, Winry races across the room and throws her arms around him.

“I don’t hate you!” she exclaims, squeezing him tightly. She kisses him on the lips and Garfiel asks them to kindly refrain from ravaging each other while they have such an important guest in the room.

“Granny!” Winry sits on a nearby stool so Pinako can properly hug her. “I’m so glad you made it!”

“I wouldn’t miss your graduation for the world, girl,” she says before kissing her cheek. “Besides, I wanted to see where you earned your mastership! I want to see your workbench and your schematics!” 

“I’ll be glad to show you the place and everything I’ve been working on,” Winry replies, smiling. “But first, I really want to introduce you to the man who’s been training me. He helped me get that mastership and it’s really important to me that you meet him properly.” She stands up and puts a hand on Garfiel’s shoulder. “This is Garfiel De La Rosa, automail engineer and mechanic in Rush Valley for over thirty years! His father was a master engraver from Aerugo-”

“Pancho!” Pinako cries out. “I knew him! I had a commission once for an elaborate filigree leg that I subcontracted out to him!” Garfiel gasps as his hands are clasp under his chin and Pinako wonders if he’ll cry- like Maj. Armstrong did a few times at her home. When the man before her seems to twist his legs up around themselves, she wonders if he’s going to pee himself instead!

“Oh my gosh! I can’t believe _my father_ knew _you!_ You’re a legend here, Ms. Rockbell! And I can’t tell you how grateful and honored I am to have been your prodigy’s mentor! No award or medal I could ever get would be worth more than helping her reach her mastership!” Pinako watches him curtsey before her and she chuckles. She thanks him for putting up with Winry’s sometimes short temper and frequent all-nighters. Before the two of them can get too lost in small talk, Winry interrupts them.

“Since it’s just about lunch time, why don’t we all go get a bite to eat? I could call Dominic and see if he’d like to come catch up with you, Granny!”

Pinako agrees, only if Winry promises to go for a walk with her later, that way she can point out the places she knew in her Rush Valley heyday. Winry sets her up in the guest room and lets her freshen up while she contacts her old friend to set up a lunch time reunion.

Over the next few days, she makes rounds to different shops, visiting with old friends, making new ones, spending time with Winry in her shop and helping her with various commissions. Finally, the mastership ceremony arrives and she dons her best dress to attend the commencement with Ed.

Pinako remembers when Urey graduated medical school, the long and drawn out event that took over two hours to get through. Speeches, awards, handing out diplomas… Thank heavens Rush Valley’s graduating class is nothing like that. The Commissioner for Automail Practices and Standards gives a short speech to the group of seventeen new master mechanics, then hands out certificates without much delay. When Winry’s name is called, she and Ed whoop and holler like they’re at the race track. Garfiel signs the commissioner’s register as witness to her skills, and in under an hour, Winry Rockbell is officially a master Automail Fabricator and Repair Technician.

They celebrate back at the shop with whiskey and rum, and Pinako is proud as punch that Winry can hold her liquor. When Garfiel asks what she plans to do now, she surprises them all.

“I think I’m gonna just stay here until Ed’s ready to settle down,” she says, her cheeks pink from drinking. “Make all the money I can so I can put it up when babies start coming.” Ed doesn’t seem embarrassed by her talking about having children with him, and Pinako wonders if that’s because he’s half drunk or he’s genuinely matured some. “Once the kids are in school, I can pick it back up from home.”

Ed encourages her train of thought. “We can clear the land where my house was and build a whole new home, with a shop big enough to do whatever you want in it!” Garfiel says he was thinking of taking a little break to go visit his mother in Pendleton, and if Winry was comfortable with him leaving, she could have all the clients that came in his absence. They shake on it and after he downs his very fruity looking drink, Garfiel congratulates her once more with a wet smooch to her cheek and excuses himself to go to bed.

“Well,” Pinako says with a sigh, “when I’m dead and gone, you’ll automatically get all of my clients. Looks like you’ll be all set up to be a hardworking Rockbell woman!”

“Pshh, like you’re going anywhere anytime soon,” Ed scoffs, downing his drink and pouring himself another one. “Only the good die young. You’ll be around ‘til the end of humanity!”

“So when are you two gonna get married?” she asks, puffing on her pipe.

Winry winks at her over her tumbler of rum. “Who says we aren’t already?”

Pinako’s brows knit together. “What?” She looks at Ed, who’s wearing the same shit-eating grin as Winry. “When did that happen!?”

Ed replies, “In the fall. I came to visit and we woke up one morning and I said, ‘Let’s get married today,’ and she said okay!”

She slams her palms down on the table, shaking it and causing the ice in their glasses to shift and clink. “Why didn’t you tell me?!”

Winry shrugs. “We were going to have a ceremony once Ed was done travelling. Didn’t really plan on letting anybody know about the eloping part, but here we are.”

Speechless, Pinako sits back in her chair and puffs on her pipe for a moment. Then, she starts to laugh. She freshens her drink and raises the glass. “You wouldn’t be a Rockbell if you didn’t elope in Rush Valley! Congratulations!”

They all drink to her on-the-spot toast and Pinako gets up from her chair to give both of them a hug. “I’m proud of you, girl. I know your mom and dad are proud of you, too.”

“Thank you for all your help and encouragement over the years, Granny,” Winry says, wiping her eyes. “While I wish mom and dad were here to see this, I couldn’t ask for anyone better to mother me in their absence.”

“If I’m still around when your kids show up, I’ll be there for them, too,” she promises. “Alright, I’m going to bed. You two make sure to use protection- we don’t need any babies just yet!” They chuckle as she climbs the stairs to her room.

After Pinako returns home, when the digest comes in the mail, she carefully tears out the announcement page that has Winry’s name on it and puts it in a brass frame. She hangs it on the wall next to the picture of Urey and Sara’s wedding photo and smiles every time she sees it.


End file.
